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Supreme Commander of the New Republic
The title of Supreme Commander was one of the highest military ranks accorded in the New Republic. New Republic After the victory at Endor, major reforms occurred: the increase in ground troops led to a new bilateral division into Army and Navy, and a cumbersome bureaucratic superstructure was imposed: the Ministry of War was renamed the Ministry of Defense, and additional Ministries of the Army and the Navy were formed, creating three Council-level political appointments with overlapping jurisdictions. Yet in terms of operational control, what happened was that the Fleet simply gobbled up the other commands: Ackbar—still normally commanding on the front line from Home One—became Commander-in-Chief of the entire New Republic military (though still subordinate to the Chief of State). The old high command ceased to function as a council of state, but security forces acquired a new definition, with General Crix Madine becoming Supreme Allied Commander for both SpecForces and Intelligence. About ten years after Endor, the entire cumbersome political apparatus was swept away, and military authority was concentrated in a new post of Supreme Commander. Officially, this post replaced the Minister of Defense, but with the office filled by the Admiral of the Fleet, and no civilian ministries to get in the way, it represented in practice the apotheosis of the process of concentration of military authority in Fleet Command that can be observed in earlier developments. The independence of the other Supreme Allied Commanders was ended, their former agencies subordinated to the Supreme Commander: in effect, Fleet Command's preexisting Starfighter Command, Ordnance and Support and Fleet Intelligence departments absorbed StarCom, OaS and Support, and much of the combined Intel/SpecForces hierarchy. In the twenty years or so between Admiral Ackbar's initial appointment as Supreme Allied Commander for the Fleet and his retirement as Supreme Commander of the New Republic Defense Force, the only changes in the actual organizational superstructure of his command were thus as follows: subordinate field commands passed from a flexible group of Line Admirals to five Fleet commanders; Ordnance and Support was renamed Quartermaster; and the Fleet absorbed the rest of the military. Of the former commands, only Intelligence survived as an independent department—in fact, it was totally separated within the constitutional hierarchy, under a Director rather than a Supreme Commander, and more-militarized elements of the former SpecForces, such as the Katarn Commandos, were absorbed by Fleet Intelligence. By the time the Yuuzhan Vong invasion began, Ackbar had retired, and the Supreme Commander was the Sullustan Fleet Admiral Sien Sovv, an able administrator and determined organizer. Although a hero on Sullust, Sovv did not inspire the same awe in many of his personnel as Ackbar, and he was not a famous battlefleet commander. He further differed from Ackbar in his willingness to participate openly in the New Republic's political scrum—and he accordingly conducted the war from a desk on Coruscant, rather than the command deck of a battleship. Nor was he perhaps the most compassionate, tactically flexible or surgically deft operational commander—but then, it cannot have been easy for him to follow a legend like Ackbar, and he shared with his celebrated predecessor a doughty determination to win, and an understated capability to deploy ships, personnel and infrastructure to that end. List of Supreme Commanders *Gial Ackbar (c. 12–23 ABY) ::(Commander-in-Chief 4–c. 12 ABY) ::(Supreme Commander of the Defense Force, c. 12–23 ABY) *Sien Sovv (23–29 ABY) *Traest Kre'fey (29 ABY) *Sien Sovv (29–36 ABY) *Cha Niathal (40–41 ABY) *Nek Bwua'tu (41 ABY—) Appearances *''Star Wars: Shield of Lies'' *''Star Wars: Tyrant's Test'' *''Star Wars: Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream'' *''Star Wars: Destiny's Way'' *''Star Wars: Force Heretic I: Remnant'' *''Star Wars: The Unifying Force'' Category:New Republic Supreme Commanders Category:Military ranks